How, in the name of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, do you turn the delightfully inconsistent nature of Quidditch into a coherent sport for online multiplayer? Well, after many hours with Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, I’m still not entirely sure of the answer. I don’t think developer Unbroken Studios knows either, though they’ve had a ruddy good go of it.
Quidditch is a fantastic sport for scripted storytelling, be it in a novel or a film. Big, bombastic, dramatic, spectacular and a bit weird, those broomstick riding daredevils have been thrilling fans of the Wizarding World for years now. When it comes to a video game though, the narrative-led nature of Quidditch prove to be a bit messy. Unbroken Studios have attempted to bring order to the chaos with some clearer and more consistent rules.
Each team consists of six team members: three Chasers, one Beater, one Seeker, and one Keeper. As a solo player you can switch between the four roles at will, swapping to each character with the stab of a button, but in the 3v3 online, all players are assigned a Chaser and one of the other three classes. It’s a smart mechanic adapted other sports games, because when it comes to Quidditch, some positions are far more fun and meaningful to play in than others.
Being a Beater is terrific fun. Your job is to beat up opposing players and eliminate them from the match for a brief, but vital, period. You do this by summoning a Bludgeon – thankfully you don’t have to go find the Bludgeon, and instead you bring into existence with magic – and then launching it with wanton abandon at a teenager’s delicate and still developing skull.
Everyone wants to be a Beater, so chances are you’ll get to do this the least. Instead, judging by my experience, you are more likely to end up being the mostly pants Keeper and Seeker.
Being a Keeper is rubbish. Hanging out around the three hoop like goal posts, you can attempt to tackle player’s heading your way or intercept the ball – sorry, Quaffle. Controls are haphazard and the whole endevour feels fumbly. You’ll succeed and fail by accident, with skill or intention having little impact on proceedings. You can call plays, but it’s so ineffective on the outcome of a game – plus all the other players ignore you anyway – that it’s not worth your while.
Being a Seeker is slightly more enjoyable. You’ll spend most of your time doing nothing until a little flying ball called a Snitch is released. Then you need to leap into action, tracking the Snitch down, then chasing and catching it. Smartly, instead of securing your team 150 points and ending the match, you instead net 30 points and the game continues until 100 points is reached. Thing is, chasing a snitch, according to the Harry Potter books at least, should be thrilling and dangerous. Here it’s just a chore. You fly back and forth along the pitch, unable to fly particularly high due to restrictive invisible walls, waiting for a meter to fill until you finally are allowed to catch the snitch.
Finally, the Chaser is the more generic role that all players share in. Here you’ll throw and pass the Quaffle, launch tackles, and try to be a good team player. I say try, because teamwork doesn’t often happen in Quidditch Champions. Did you ever play in a football team when you were eight or nine years-old? You know the way that wherever the ball gets hoofed, every child, in every position, runs like their possessed after the ball? Well, Quidditch Champions is like that. You all chase after the Quaffle, passing and tactics be damned. The game just isn’t built for it. Maybe you get lucky, get the Quaffle and score, but you won’t get much satisfaction, there’s just too much random flukiness in this sport for that.
And yet, despite all these issues, there’s something occasionally oddly engaging about Quidditch Champions. Sometimes, not often, you get a decent match and everything makes sense. Plus, the visuals are lovely, the charming cartoon versions of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and co are filled with character. The voice over work is superb too, everyone sounding exactly as you imagined when reading the original books.
Then there’s the speed. This game plays fast, and boosting along on your broomstick feels just the right amount of punchy.Sadly, the camera can’t keep up. Rarely can you see where you want to go, following the action being near impossible. The HUD is weak too, failing to enable you to easily tell where the Quaffle even is, let along identify friend from foe – likely part of why everyone just flies from one end of the pitch to the other, refusing to pass. I mean, how can you pass if you can’t tell who’s even on your team?
At this stage of its release, with limited match options, arenas, characters, and outfits, you’ll likely have seen everything that Quidditch Champions has to offer in a few days. There is something here, a spark of a great game waiting to be, but Unbroken Studios are just going to have to put their collective broomsticks into overdrive to get there before their player base moves on.